


The Box by the Bed

by dead_doll



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Mild Smut, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27070504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dead_doll/pseuds/dead_doll
Summary: Lucy Gray dreams about the President. AU where Lucy is Coriolanus' mistress. Inspired by the song 'Jennifer's Body' by Hole.
Relationships: Lucy Gray Baird/Coriolanus Snow
Comments: 7
Kudos: 24





	The Box by the Bed

_I know it, I can't feel it  
Well, I know it enough to believe it  
And I know it, I can't see it  
But I know it enough to believe it_

She had never thought it would end up like this. She knew he was ambitious, sure, but she had never anticipated that he would come _this_ far. And she didn't think he would drag her up with him.

He had always been ... sweet. There for her. She always trusted that she could count on him, that he would be there to guide her. She felt grateful to him, even though she knew he wasn't really doing it for _her_. She was a lot of things, but naïve wasn't one of them. She knew her lovely mentor only cared because of what he could get out of her. He wanted that scholarship, which she was the key to unlocking. She had thought his kindness was dependant on him being able to get something out of her. Which is why what he did stunned her. _He sabotaged himself for me._ The stunt with the snakes, the poison in the rose compact, had almost been his ruin. A boy of his ambition ... _Why would he ruin his career for me?_ He was a clever boy, he wasn't stupid enough to think he would actually have a chance of winning by blatantly cheating. Which left only one answer. _He loves me. Doesn't he?_

Coriolanus got lucky, though (and poor Sejanus got unlucky, Lucy thought). His punishment was overturned after he had proved his loyalty to the Capitol. So he got to go back. Then, a few years later, he plucked her from District 12 and brought her to the Capitol to be with him. He had gotten not just his scholarship, but the highest prize of them all - the Presidency of Panem. President Ravinstill had died - a very bad case of food poisoning, they said, exacerbated by his old age - and Coriolanus was the natural choice to be his successor. He had it all - experience in the military, his good family name, and the popularity that he had developed during the course of his career as a Gamemaker. Popularity that she had contributed to. He had been the one to popularise the Hunger Games, after all, and who had been the one who inspired every action, every change, he made to the Hunger Games? His darling Victor, District 12's singing rainbow girl, Lucy Gray Baird. Everything from the implementation of the Tribute Training Centre (created in response to the abysmal conditions Lucy had lived in prior to her Games), down to the small tribute tokens each child carried into the Arena with them, had been influenced by Lucy Gray Baird's experiences in the Hunger Games. 

She still had her token, after all these years. Coriolanus had let her keep his mother's rose compact permanently, as a sign of his affection, and now it lived in her handbag, a gift from the man who had saved her, kept her safe under his wing, _but who could also take everything away from me in a heartbeat if he wants._ Sometimes she would use the compact out in public, checking her reflection to see if her hair and makeup still looked perfect. It got people talking - quiet murmurs from people who wondered why _she_ had it. It wasn't known that the compact had once been a tool the President used to cheat his way to victory in the Hunger Games - that had been erased from history, along with the tape of her Games, only known by the select few elites who had been there at the time -, but it _was_ known that the compact belonged to his mother. Most people agreed that Lucy Gray should get to keep it - after all, he had given it to her first - but some people wondered why it hadn't been gifted to his wife instead. After all, wasn't that the way it usually happened? A mother passes on a beloved trinket of hers to her son, and then, later in life, the son gives it to his wife? In any case, it didn't really matter. Most Capitolites themselves weren't pure angels. Their President marrying a District girl would have been too much - even a District girl who was Covey, not _really_ District, such as herself. But as long as Panem's First Lady was from the Capitol, then it was of little importance to most people in the Capitol who the President had love affairs with.

There were still a minority of people who seemed bitter about the compact, though, and about Lucy Gray's relationship with the President in general. These people were mostly supporters of the Cardew Family. Coriolanus' wife was a Cardew. Sometimes, at parties that both Lucy Gray and Livia were in attendance at, Lucy Gray would take out the compact and adjust her hair, even though she didn't actually _need_ to, just to see the look on Livia's face. She'd give a bright, beaming smile in response to Livia's icy glare. Then, after the party was over, she'd wait for the room to empty, before taking Coryo's hand and leading him into her own quarters of the Presidential mansion, smirking at the expression of hatred she knew Livia was giving her. It was funny seeing Livia get all bent out of shape about it. Lucy didn't know why she was so jealous. Livia had gotten the first ladyship and the kids. The rose compact and sex belonged to Lucy.

Coryo had given Lucy Gray her own area in the Presidential Mansion, which nobody except for the people closest to them even knew about. Officially, she had her own apartment, in an upper-class area of the Capitol. But usually she resided in a private area of the Presidential Mansion, where Coryo would often visit her. Having a secret sweetheart would have been exciting, if it hadn't happened under such awful circumstances. But at least she had someone to keep her warm at night - something Snow's own wife didn't have.

Lucy Gray was one of the very few District people considered loyal to the Capitol, along with the Plinths, and had been brought here by Coriolanus, in the narrow period of years before it had been banned almost altogether for people to travel throughout Panem. Panem had always been divided, but it was much more integrated before Coriolanus' presidency - strange how much things could change in a few short years - and thus Lucy had been able to join her old lover in the Capitol. This would have been impossible nowadays. She had gotten lucky, in a way. Her life was a lot better in the Capitol than it would have been if she'd stayed in 12. She didn't miss 12 very much - those people had never accepted her - but she did miss her family. The one bright spot of Hunger Games Mentorship was that she was able to go to District 12 once a year for the Reaping, and during that one day, she would visit the Coveys. A couple of hours out of the busy day wasn't an ideal amount of time to do all their catching up in, but she was at least able to learn news of her family, and she would give them some money to help them. Musical performances were still banned at the Hob, and the Coveys made nearly all of their money at weddings these days. They often struggled to get by. But on the bright side, Maude Ivory's pet goat had given birth to babies the last time Lucy Gray was in 12.

Victors being made to mentor Tributes was still fairly new. It took quite a toll on Lucy Gray. Meeting two children, and having to care for them and advise them to the best of her ability, before they almost inevitably died, didn't seem to be getting any easier. Not even being the President's mistress could exempt her from having to do this. At first, she had started knocking back alcohol, something that prior to being a Mentor, she hadn't done in years. But Coriolanus had been mad, and banned her from drinking. He still couldn't stop her from sneaking an occasional sip of wine though.

The Hunger Games weren't for months. But now Lucy's mind was filled with dread, thoughts of the next pair of children she would have to lead to their deaths haunting her. She wasn't much of a Mentor - she had only won her own Games on account of her own charisma and Coriolanus' help. Plus, District 12's tributes were already at a disadvantage, by virtue of being from the poorest and most malnourished District. She tried her best, but there just wasn't a lot she could do to help. And that tortured her, even worse than being stolen from her own family did.

A sudden weight pressing down on the bed Lucy was lying on roused her from her thoughts.

"Can't sleep?"

Lucy turned on her side to look at the man who had lain next to her. Light blue eyes met her own. They looked as if they were made of delicate glass. They suited him so perfectly. He looked every part the angelic protector she had thought of him as when she was younger, her guardian angel who had fallen from the sky to keep her safe.

"I'll be able to sleep now that _you're_ here," Lucy said lightly.

Coriolanus ignored her attempt to play off her sleeplessness.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

"Coryo, I'm fine. Let's go asleep."

"You can't lie to me, Lucy Gray," he said, a hint of a wry smile playing around his lips.

"It's just - Well, I'm thinking of the Hunger Games."

"Already? It's a little premature, don't you think?"

"A little. Coriolanus, I - I don't want to do this. I can't do it - meeting those kids, being their one hope, and then just watching them die. It's -"

"- This again, Lucy?" he sighed. " Look, we've talked about this before. The Victors mentoring the Tributes has been very popular, we can't just get rid of it. You're going to have to get used to it."

Lucy sat up and looked Coriolanus straight in the eyes.

"Coryo, how did you feel when you had to watch me go in the Arena?"

"Lucy, you know I was upset over it. You know what I did to get you out of there. But that was different. It was a different time. We'd gotten close to each other. I was already in love with you, even after such a short time of knowing you. Just don't bond too much with your tributes and it will get easier, okay? This is the last time I am going to discuss this with you. I have better things to worry about than this, you know."

"Coryo, _why?_ " Lucy Gray wasn't even really sure what specifically she was asking about. There were a lot of things she wanted to ask him "why?" about.

"Because it's better this way."

_It's bettering you. It's bettering me. My bitter half has bitten me._

"Are you mad at me, Coriolanus?"

"Mad at you? No, my dear. I love you, you know that. Now just relax. Just go to sleep," he said, kissing her forehead before turning on his side. Lucy lay her head next to his on the pillow, inhaling the scent of his golden blond hair.

_Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep.  
Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep. _

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night, she had disjointed, uneasy dreams. She was back in the Woods of District 12. It was dark, the surrounding trees making the sky seem even blacker. She had been running away from someone - who? - sprinting through the foliage, until she reached the tallest tree in the woods, and climbed up it. Still as a rock, she dared not make a sound. She stayed up there for what seemed like an eternity. Her body felt stiff as a doll, and the gnawing hunger in her stomach was getting worse, but she still didn't make a movement - except for to caress the snake inside her pocket. Then, she felt movement.

_He cuts you down from the tree._

Suddenly she was falling, rushing through the air. She braced herself for the impact that would surely happen, but it didn't come. Instead, she landed perfectly in a warm pair of arms. She looked up at her rescuer - or was he her executioner? It was hard to make out in the dark, but the faint scent of roses, the glint of gold hair that was visible in the moonlight - surely it was _him_. It was always him. Then suddenly, she was in what looked like the apartment building he had grown up in, the one that had been turned into the Tribute Training Centre. The smell of roses was much stronger here. It was warm. She sat down in a plush armchair. The room had been completely empty apart from herself, but all of a sudden he appeared, carrying a tray with two mugs on it. He set the tray on the small table in front of her, before sitting down in the chair opposite hers and offering her one of the mugs. She accepted it hesitantly, sniffing it suspiciously.

"I didn't do anything to it. I don't have to do anything to _you_. Look, I'll drink some of it," he said, taking a sip out of her mug.

If there was one thing she knew, it was when he was lying. She accepted the mug, and drank some of the contents. It was warm milk, which had been sweetened with honey. She could also taste cinnamon, vanilla, and a hint of something else.

"I followed you into the woods."

"I know."

"Wasn't that what you wanted back then? For me to come to the woods with you?" he asked.

"It was."

"Was?"

"Is."

"Well, I gave you what you wanted. I went to the woods for you. And I'll keep doing it. Every time you run away, I'll bring you back home. Leave me again and maybe your family in 12 will pay for it. I'm losing my patience, Lucy Gray."

Lucy stayed silent, taking a long sip of the milk he had given her. Silence did not usually become her. But what was there to say? She felt so disconnected from the world, and from herself. Surely this way of living was a way of killing a woman's personality. Coriolanus reached across the table and took her hand, making her jump slightly. He chuckled, and then said, "What, are you afraid of me?"

_I'm your lover, I'm your friend._

"Lucy, you're as cold as ice. Here, let me warm you up." He took her other hand and squeezed both of her hands gently. And then, he leaned in, his rosy lips tenderly touching hers. It was a nice kiss, but it still spiked her anxiety. Yet she reciprocated anyway. He tasted sweet. And then suddenly, she was in his lap, and his hand had slipped between her thighs. _This always happens._ And they were still kissing, but more passionately. And then they were in his bed in the Presidential Mansion, him lying on the bed, and her on top of him, straddling his face, her hands tangling in his golden curls and her clitoris throbbing desperately against his tongue. It felt wrong, but it also felt amazing. She was sleeping with her enemy, who was also her greatest ally. Her thighs crushed his face as he pleasured her, taking his hand out of his trousers and reaching both of his arms up to grip her hips. Then she orgasmed all over his face and chin, before going limp. She had hardly had time to recover, when he picked her up and placed her into a box. Why was he keeping her in a _box?_ The pieces of her body were foldable, just like a doll, and he tucked her up nice and neat, storing her in the toy box next to his bed, before falling asleep.

_He keeps you in a box by the bed. Alive, but just barely._

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She was awoken by a soft shake on her shoulder. Huh. It was still dark.

"Restless tonight, are we?" she heard his voice say in the dark. She must have been tossing and turning.

"Another nightmare, I suppose. I have to be up early, you know. Well, never mind, I forgive you for disturbing my sleep."

"Sorry for waking you up."

"I already said I forgive you, my love. Eventually, you'll get used to it. It'll get better with time. You're safer here with me than you would be anywhere else. Come on, go back asleep," he said, holding her tight. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. She was scared of him ... But he was right. She was safer under his control than she would be anywhere else. Animals live longer in captivity after all, don't they?

_Now you're mine._

**Author's Note:**

> for some reason the html isn't working no matter what i do, so i might repost this in the hopes the italics will actually work next time. also sorry if this is ooc, it's been a while since i read tbosas.  
> update: well, i fixed the italics, but now there's a problem with the paragraphs :/  
> second update: it's fixed
> 
> I've never written straight sex before so I'm sorry if this is bad :/


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